“Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Прокудин-Горский, August 30 1863 Russian Empire – September 27, 1944 Paris, France) was a Russian chemist and photographer. He is best known for his pioneering work in color photography of early 20th-century Russia.

Prokudin-Gorsky was born in the ancestral estate of Funikova Gora, in what is now Kirzhachsky District, Vladimir Oblast. His parents were of the Russian nobility, and the family had a long military history. They moved to Saint Petersburg, where Prokudin-Gorsky enrolled in Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology to study chemistry under Dmitri Mendeleev. He also studied music and painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1889, he traveled to Berlin to continue his studies in photochemistry at the Technical University of Berlin with Adolf Miethe, who was working on color dyes and three-color photography.

In 1901, he established a photography studio and laboratory in Saint Petersburg and further developed Miethe's methods on color photography. Throughout the years, his photographic work, publications and slide shows to other scientists and photographers in Russia, Germany and France earned him praise, and, in 1906, he was elected the president of the IRTS photography section and editor of Russia's main photography journal, the Fotograf-Liubitel.

His photos of Russia's nature and monuments earned him invitations to show his work to the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Empress Maria Feodorovna, and, eventually, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family in 1909.

Prokudin-Gorsky's own research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting color motion pictures. His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different-colored filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly colored light, it was possible to reconstruct the original color scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times”. – Wikipedia

Group of Jewish children with a teacher. Samarkand. Russia, Samarkand region, 1911 (Original)

Group of Jewish children with a teacher. Samarkand. Russia, Samarkand region, 1911 (Restored by Constantine and Vladimir Khodakovskii)

“Around 1905, Prokudin-Gorsky envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advances that had been made in color photography to document the Russian Empire systematically. Through such an ambitious project, his ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his “optical color projections” of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire.

Outfitted with a specially equipped railroad-car darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II and in possession of two permits that granted him access to restricted areas and cooperation from the empire's bureaucracy, Prokudin-Gorsky documented the Russian Empire around 1909 through 1915. He conducted many illustrated lectures of his work. His photographs offer a vivid portrait of a lost world – the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming Russian Revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population.

It has been estimated from Prokudin-Gorsky's personal inventory that before leaving Russia, he had about 3500 negatives. Upon leaving the country and exporting all his photographic material, about half of the photos were confiscated by Russian authorities for containing material that seemed to be strategically sensitive for war-time Russia. According to Prokudin-Gorsky's notes, the photos left behind were not of interest to the general public. Some of Prokudin-Gorsky's negatives were given away, and some he hid on his departure. Outside the Library of Congress collection, none has yet been found.

By Prokudin-Gorsky's death, the tsar and his family had long since been executed during the Russian Revolution, and Communist rule had been established over what was once the Russian Empire. The surviving boxes of photo albums and fragile glass plates the negatives were recorded on were finally stored in the basement of a Parisian apartment building, and the family was worried about them getting damaged. The United States Library of Congress purchased the material from Prokudin-Gorsky's heirs in 1948 for $3500–$5000 on the initiative of a researcher inquiring into their whereabouts. The library counted 1902 negatives and 710 album prints without corresponding negatives in the collection.

In 2001, the Library of Congress produced an exhibition from these, “The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated”. The photographs have since been the subject of many other exhibitions in the area where Prokudin-Gorsky took his photos.

A century after Prokudin-Gorsky explained his ambitions to the tsar, people all around the world are finally able to view his work, fulfilling his goal of showing everyone the glory of the Russian Empire”. – Wikipedia. (Photos by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky via US Library of Congress and Prokudin-Gorsky.org)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews). Enjoy.

Zindan (prison), with inmates looking out through the bars and a guard with Russian rifle, uniform, and boots, Central Asia. Russia, Emirate of Bukhara, Bukhara area, 1907.

“Dzhigit Ibragim”. Apparently, the picture depicted an employee of 1st Caucasian Potemkin Kuban Cossack regiment, stationed at the time of filming in the area of ​​Merv. Jigits called Cossacks, who had special trained for riding. Russia, Transcaspian Region, Merv uyezd (district), Bairam-Ali area, 1911.

At work on the upper reaches of the Syr-Darya. Golodnaia Steppe. Russia, Samarkand region, Khujand County, 1911.

Observing a solar eclipse on January 1, 1907, near the Cherniaevo Station in the Tian-Shan mountains above the Saliuktin mines. Golodnaia Steppe. Russia, Samarkand region, Khujand County.

Russian children sitting on the side of a hill near a church and bell tower in the countryside near White Lake, in the north of European Russia. The picture was taken at the church in the background Pyatnitskaya Belozersk (not preserved). Novgorod Province, White Lake County, 1909.

Bashkir near his house (in the village of Yakhia). Russia, Ufa Province, Ufa uyezd (district), Yakhino village, 1910.

“Three generations”. Andrei Petrovitsh Kalganov (L) with son and granddaughter (the last two work in the shops of the Zlatoust plant). A.P. Kalganov – former master in the plant. Seventy-two years old, has worked at the plant for fifty-five years. He was fortunate to present bread and salt to His Imperial Majesty, the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. Russia, Ufa Province, Zlatoust uyezd (district), Zlatoust town, September 1909.

View from the bell tower of the Trinity cathedral (of the Trinity Monastery) on Cathedral Square in Belgorod, during the celebration of the canonization of Ioasaf of Belgorod, September 4, 1911. Russia, Kursk province, Belgorod town.

Chapel from the time of Peter the Great (1672–1725), near Kivach waterfall. Russia, Olonets province, Petrozavodsk uyezd (district), Kivach, 1916.